


Catlike

by queerli



Series: Dorian the Cat [1]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Cats, Character(s) of Color, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Mentions of Death, Translation Available, but offscreen and no one gets hurt in this fic I promise, well one cat at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 23:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20016253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerli/pseuds/queerli
Summary: There’s a newcomer to the bookshop.(Crowley isn't jealous. Heisn't.)





	Catlike

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Français available: [Catlike](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23580583) by [MlleHeathcliff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MlleHeathcliff/pseuds/MlleHeathcliff)



> **ETA (April 2020):** Some incredibly lovely people have translated this fic into French and Vietnamese!! ❤️
> 
> [Vietnamese Translation](https://www.wattpad.com/story/199792282-good-omens-trans-fic-dorian-the-cat)   
>  [French Translation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23580583/chapters/56577361?show_comments=true&view_full_work=false#comment_294464872)
> 
> I'm sad because of Homophobic Family™ so I wrote this fic to cheer myself up. This is pure fluff of Aziraphale and Crowley being queer and in love. 
> 
> Warnings for mentions of human and animal deaths. (The human death is offscreen and no actual animals are harmed in the fic at all.)

There was a cat in Aziraphale’s lap.

Crowley stopped short at the threshold of the bookshop and stared. He blinked. The baffling tableau before him did not change. Aziraphale was sitting in his armchair absorbed in a book, which was usual for him. What was _un_ usual was the grey tabby cat curled up on Aziraphale’s legs, purring to its heart's content.

“There’s a cat in your lap,” Crowley said.

Aziraphale looked up, a smile already spreading over his face. “Hello, my dear,” he said, beaming. “I wasn’t expecting you until six—”

“There is a cat,” Crowley repeated, stepping forward, “in your lap.”

Aziraphale looked down at the cat, as though he himself had forgotten it was there. “Oh, yes,” he said, stroking a hand down the cat’s spine. “Crowley, meet Dorian. He’s a dear little fellow, aren’t you, darling?” The cat purred louder and arched its back, and Crowley tried not to feel envious. Then he remembered he was a demon, meant to encourage the spread of deadly sins among the populace, and he stopped trying to hold it back.

 _"Why_ is there a cat in your lap?”

“It’s rather a funny story, actually,” Aziraphale said absently, scratching the cat under the chin. “I have this customer, you see, who’s been coming to the shop for _years_ now, ever since 1981—”

Crowley sighed. “The short version, please, angel.”

He extracted the story from Aziraphale eventually. Said customer **¹** had an old relative who had passed away recently. The passing itself hadn’t been all that tragic, as the old relative had apparently been “a bigoted fool who’s surely among your coworkers Down There by now”, as Aziraphale put it. However, the relative had owned a cat who was nothing like his owner, and who had quite suddenly found himself without a home after his master’s timely death.

[ **1:** Evidently, no person who actually _bought_ books would ever be allowed to step foot in the shop again. However, Aziraphale had a small group of dedicated “customers” who were permitted to leaf through his books to their heart’s content, so long as they handled the manuscripts carefully and didn’t try to purchase anything.]

“...and so I told Xiuying that I could certainly help find a home for him, and that home was with me,” Aziraphale finished. He rubbed Dorian’s furry ears, to the cat’s delight.

“So you’re keeping him,” Crowley said slowly, still wrestling with the concept of a cat sitting in Aziraphale’s lap where there hadn’t been one before. “Forever.”

Aziraphale visibly drooped a bit. “Not _forever_ , I suppose, in the strictest sense of the word. He still has another good twenty years in him, if we care for him well, but…”

“Never mind that,” Crowley said hastily, heart dropping at Aziraphale’s expression. He went up to the angel’s side and pressed a kiss into the halo of thick black curls. “Just — Dorian, really? I thought you said his former owner was a bigot.”

Aziraphale relaxed and twined their fingers together. “He had a different name before he came here, of course. But it just seemed terribly unfitting, and, well. I reckoned it was about time for a change.”

From the way Dorian looked up expectantly at the sound of his new name, he seemed to agree. Crowley studied the rotund ball of grey fluff, and thought he could understand where Dorian was coming from.

“I think it’s a great name,” Crowley said, perching on the arm of the armchair. He flinched a bit when Dorian craned his neck over to sniff his hand, but Aziraphale only chuckled.

“He doesn’t bite, my dear. You have nothing to fear. Now, Dorian,” he said sternly to the feline, “I trust you will conduct yourself in a manner befitting your station. Crowley here is my dearest friend and I love him very much, so I expect you to treat him just as well as you have treated me.”

Whether or not Dorian heeded the gentle scolding didn’t seem to matter. He bumped his nose against Crowley’s curled fingers, and then, apparently deciding that this new man-shaped creature was a satisfactory addition to the bookshop, pressed his furry head hard against Crowley’s hand, purring up a storm. Crowley had turned into a puddle of befuddled-but-warm mush at Aziraphale calling him “my dearest friend”, but he collected himself enough to reciprocate Dorian’s affections, tentatively scratching the cat’s ears and then more boldly stroking through his soft fur. Dorian melted into fourteen pounds of fuzz and feline bliss. 

Eventually the three of them found themselves in the back room of the bookshop. Logically the settee shouldn’t have been able to hold two fully-grown adults and one large cat all curled up together, but a discreet miracle ensured that they could all fit without anyone rolling off. 

Crowley buried his face in Aziraphale’s sweater and breathed in the comforting smell of old books and starlight. Then he wrinkled his nose and withdrew. 

“You’re covered in cat hair,” he complained.

Aziraphale was already half asleep, but the corners of his lips quirked faintly upwards. “I could say the same of you, too, my dear,” he murmured.

Crowley thought of his nice black suit all covered in clinging light grey cat hairs, and groaned. “I’ll never get them off my clothes at this rate,” he muttered. “Furry little devil.”

The furry little devil in question was curled around the region of Crowley’s back, rumbling away like a particularly contented mini-lawnmower. Crowley had to grudgingly admire his air of smug feline satisfaction. 

Aziraphale hummed. “He’s only a cat, my dear. Not hellish nor heavenly in the least.”

He opened his eyes to meet Crowley’s, and smiled. 

“After all,” he whispered, with a sly glance, “There is only one demon in the universe whom I love.”

Crowley caught Aziraphale’s lips in a kiss. They continued along this vein for quite some time, and would’ve gone on for much longer, had Dorian not grown tired of the proceedings and eventually yowled for his dinner. 

(And if, in years to come, Dorian survived long past the possible lifespan for a mortal cat, no one else was around to notice.)

**Author's Note:**

> Dorian may end up popping up in more fics. We'll see. 
> 
> I also write stuff on my GO blog @ethereal-not-occult on tumblr.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Comments are much appreciated. ❤️


End file.
